The invention relates to a seat for a transit vehicle and more particularly, to a cantilevered seat. Since a cantilevered seat for a vehicle is normally mounted to the side walls of the vehicle, the seat must necessarily have mounting structures adjacent the end to be attached to the vehicle side wall. In the past, this has necessitated the having of separate seats for mounting to the left and right side walls of the vehicle.
The cantilevered seats previously known also normally had a passenger seat handle attached to the top of the seat and these had a different orientation depending upon whether they were a left or a right side seat.
Several other cantilevered seats for vehicles required metal frames or tubing to give strength and rigidity to the seat so that it would not bend under the force of a load applied at a point spaced outwardly from the vehicle wall. These seats, because of their metal frames were quite heavy and added appreciably to the overall weight of the vehicle due to the number of seats normally on a vehicle such as a bus.
The use of vehicle seats having a shell molded from plastic is old with respect to pedestal mounted seats but is novel with respect to cantilevered vehicle seats. In these prior art vehicle seats, the structure of the seat shell was simple due to the fact that the pedestal mounting structure provided the supporting structure for the seat whereas in the cantilevered seat it must be designed to withstand compressive forces, torsional forces, and forces tending to cause deflection both from its own weight and any weight being supported upon the seat itself.
Some previous cantilevered vehicle seats have also utilized foamed plastic as a filler material between the outer skins of the seat. In these seats, however, the structural integrity of the seat was dependent upon the metal frame thereof.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel cantilevered seat for a transit vehicle that will allow it to be used as either a left or right hand mounted seat.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel cantilevered seat for a transit vehicle that is molded from polycarbonate structural foam plastic that itself provides the structural integrity for the seat rather than requiring a metal frame to provide such structural integrity.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel cantilevered seat for a transit vehicle that is easy to install and yet will remain secure under a crash condition.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel cantilevered seat for a transit vehicle made from plastic and which will have a minimum amount of deflection under its own weight.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel cantilevered seat for a transit vehicle that is inexpensive to manufacture and also light in weight.